Chapter 1560

In the face of the fierce offensive of our army, the German army was losing ground. By the evening of the 16th, the forces on the right wing and the central section of the front army had wedged into the German campaign defense, with a depth of 40-50 km.

Seeing the smooth progress of our army, konev, who had not slept for a few days, was finally relieved. He called sokolovsky over and said, "Comrade chief of staff, I will go to Moscow with Lida early tomorrow morning, and you will be fully responsible for the affairs in the army."

"Marshal," seeing that konev suddenly put such a heavy burden on himself, sokolovsky, the chief of staff, was very nervous: "now the battle is going on at the most critical moment, and you leave at this time, I'm afraid it will affect the next action of the army."

"Comrade chief of staff," konev said solemnly, looking up at his deputy, "every commander of the group army who takes part in the battle knows his own task and direction of attack. You just need to coordinate between them."

"But what should I do if there is an emergency?" Sokolovsky also asked psychologically.

Seeing sokolovsky's performance, I felt a trace of dissatisfaction. As a chief of staff of the front army with the rank of general, I didn't expect that his ability to be independent was so poor. Konev and I were away for a day at most, and he was a little at a loss.

When I was thinking about what I would do if I was in konev's position and met a chief of staff like sokolovsky, I heard konev say, "chief of staff, we went to Moscow and didn't come back. If there's something you can't handle, send me a telegram. Do you understand? "

"I understand." "I will keep in touch with you at any time," sokolovsky replied respectfully

After the transfer of command, konev and I stayed in the headquarters for another night, and then flew to Moscow on the morning plane. When our plane landed at the military airport in the north of the city, a colonel from the Kremlin had been waiting for us by the runway.

Seeing us coming down from the plane, the Officer immediately came up, raised his hand, saluted konev and said, "Comrade marshal, I have been ordered to meet you. Please come to us."

There were three black gas cars and a medium jeep with awning beside the runway. The officer rushed to the car in the middle, opened the back door and politely said to konev, "marshal, please get on the bus."

I waited for konev to bend down and get into the car. He was about to get on the back car, but konev leaned out of the car and said to me, "Rita, you come up, too."

With a promise, I quickly bent forward, got into the back of the car and closed the door. The officer walked around the back of the car, opened the door beside the co pilot, got into the car, and told the driver to drive when he closed the door

The driver nodded slightly and honked the horn. After the gas car in front of us started, the car we took began to slide slowly.

When our motorcade was on the way, it was stopped by the traffic police. Seeing that the motorcade was stopped by the traffic police inexplicably, and there were still groups of civilians standing on the side of the road, konev could not help frowning and asked discontentedly, "Comrade Colonel, what's the matter? Why did the traffic police stop our car?"

"Comrade marshal, traffic control is being carried out ahead." The colonel looked back and replied with a happy face.

I thought that this motorcade was sent by the Kremlin. Which traffic police would dare to stop us so short-sighted. Seeing konev's unhappy face, I asked instead of him, "Colonel, why is traffic control implemented? Is there any important foreign head of state visiting?"

"Where are foreign heads of state visiting?" Obviously, the Colonel did not notice the dissatisfaction on konev's face. He still said happily: "today, a large number of German prisoners of war captured in the Belarusian battlefield will be sent to the foreign prisoner's camp through the downtown area of Moscow."

"Oh, prisoners from the Belarusian battlefield?" The Colonel's words aroused konev's great interest. He turned to me and said, "come on, Rita, let's go and have a look." With that, he pushed the door open and got ready to get off.

"Comrade marshal, please wait a moment." Seeing konev shaking off the car, the Colonel dissuaded with embarrassment: "there are too many people here. If you get off the car, it may be difficult to ensure your safety."

"Don't worry, comrade colonel." Konev said with a smile: "I believe that the enemy in the city will only pass the prisoners of war here later, so my safety is guaranteed."

Several traffic policemen who were maintaining order were shocked to see a marshal walking out of the car. One of them, a traffic police captain, also asked cautiously, "Comrade marshal, what can I do for you?"

If konev didn't say he wanted to see the prisoner March, maybe I would say to the Lieutenant First, "just let us go through this intersection." However, seeing konev's exuberant appearance, I kept silent wisely.

"Comrade lieutenant, let's just look around here." Konev kindly said to the frightened lieutenant, "you and your men continue to maintain order."

Although konev was not worried about his safety, the colonel who came to meet us did not dare to take it lightly. He called the guard soldiers in the car behind him and surrounded konev with a loose guard circle to separate him from the ordinary crowd.

Before the arrival of the prisoners of war, the Colonel began to introduce the situation to konev: "marshal, according to the arrangement of the commander of the Moscow military region, general altemiev, the German prisoners of war will be assembled at Dinamo racecourse and Holden land in the northwest of the city at 11 a.m., and they will go to Kursk, savilovsk and Riga railway stations by two routes. A total of 42000 prisoners of war marched along this route, including 1 military officer queue, 1227 general and school level officers, including 19 generals; A total of 15600 prisoners of war marched along the other route. At 7 p.m. that night, the German prisoners will take 25 tank cars to their new destination at three railway stations. "

While the colonel was introducing the situation to konev, there were some small riots in the crowd nearby. I heard a voice shouting: "comrades, look, here comes the German prisoners of war!" I looked around and saw a black crowd on the west side of the road, which should be the German prisoners of war on the street today.

At the front of the procession were the captured 19 German generals, dressed in neat uniforms, with medals on their chests, walking along the street without expression. They were escorted on both sides by cavalry armed with horseguns and riding high horses.

When the front general's Square passed us, a German general nearest to us saw konev standing by the side of the road, with a smile on his face and a salute on his forehead. For his action, konev just hummed a little, neither spoke nor saluted, as if when the other party did not exist.

After the general's square array, there was a square array composed of thousands of school level officers. These prisoners of war were still expressionless and mechanically marching along the street under the escort of our soldiers.

Then there was a line of low-ranking German officers and ordinary soldiers, which could not be seen at a glance. Although most of the prisoners were ragged and their uniforms were covered with lice, they still kept a relatively neat formation and followed the front square.

I thought the onlookers would shout, "down with the prisoners of war", "kill all these Krauts" and so on. But the real situation is that the people standing on both sides of the street, or even from the windows of nearby buildings, are silently watching the marching prisoners of war, without any radical reaction. On the contrary, I also saw some old women with headscarves shove bricks of black bread and coarse salt to the prisoners of war who passed in front of them.

When konev saw this, there was no change in his face. On the contrary, when he found that I was staring at him all the time, he explained to me with a smile: "Rita, it's a tradition. To send black bread and coarse salt to the prisoners who are going to be exiled is to hope that they will be safe. Don't make a fuss. "

It took more than half an hour for the 40000 plus prisoners of war to pass through our intersection. Seeing the prisoners of war go away, the crowd of onlookers disperse, and we come back to the car. After the traffic police clear the traffic, we can go to the Kremlin through the intersection.

Konev sat in the car silent, after a long time, he said to me: "Rita, I think the prisoner of war parade in Moscow is good, we can learn from it. For example, there will be a similar POW march in Kiev in the future. "

When we got to the Kremlin, the Colonel took us outside Stalin's office. Seeing our arrival, boskelebeshev quickly got up and came over, waved away the colonel who showed us the way, shook hands with us one by one, and asked konev with concern: "when did you arrive, comrade Marshal?"

"We arrived in Moscow at half past ten. On the way, we happened to see prisoners of war roaming the streets, so we stopped to have a look." Konev and boskelebeshev exchanged greetings and asked carefully, "is Comrade Stalin in it?"

"Yes, he has been waiting for you." "I'll let you know first," said posklebershev Then he went to the door, gently pushed open the door, stood at the door and reported to Stalin inside: "marshal konev is here!"

"Ask him in!" As soon as his voice fell, Stalin's familiar voice came out of it.

I was half behind konev and walked into the office. We both stopped in front of Stalin and raised our hands to salute. Then konev said, "Comrade Stalin, I have come to Moscow on your order."

Stalin put the cigarette end in his hand and came to shake hands with konev and me. After shaking hands, he asked with a smile, "Comrade konev, you must have seen German prisoners of war on the road, right?"

"Yes, comrade Stalin, we see it." Konev respectfully replied: "there are tens of thousands of people."

"Do you know what I'm going to do to arrange a prisoner's parade?" Stalin asked konev.

Konev and I looked at each other, then turned to Stalin and said in a flattering way, "Comrade Stalin, I think it is of far-reaching significance for you to arrange such a tour."

Stalin was obviously very satisfied with konev's practice of seeing through and not telling through. He walked back and forth in front of both of us, clutching cigarette butts: "our army has achieved great success in Belarus and successfully recovered Minsk. But the Germans did not admit their failure, and they also made serious nonsense, saying that they were withdrawing from Belarus in a planned way. Not only the Germans but also our allies don't believe in our victory. So I asked Antonov to arrange this prisoner's tour to show the world how many prisoners we have captured. "“ The effect of this is very obvious, comrade Stalin. " As soon as Stalin finished speaking, konev added with a smile: "after the end of this POW parade, all the voices questioning our great achievements in Belarus will disappear. It's more effective than our ten statements. "“ Well, comrade konev, tell me about your situation there. " Stalin went to his desk and asked, "how long will it take you to get the Germans out of Ukraine?" Konev confidently replied: "I expect that by the end of August at the latest, our troops will be able to eliminate all the German troops in the western states of Ukraine and push the front into Poland." After hearing konev's reply, Stalin did not say yes or no. instead, he picked up the phone on the table and told boskrebeshev, "is Zhukov here?" Maybe the other party gave him a negative answer, and he added, "as soon as he arrives, let him come in directly." When I heard Stalin asking Zhukov, I couldn't help but be stunned. I said in my heart that Zhukov was not in the first front army of Belarus in rokosovsky. What happened when Stalin called him back at this time? After Stalin put down the phone, he looked up to konev and said, "Comrade konev, the reason why I recalled you to Moscow is that you made many mistakes in the early days of the campaign, which affected our action to liberate the whole Ukraine." Konev's face turned pale when he heard Stalin's words. This may be the first time Stalin has said such heavy words to him since the battle of Kursk. Seeing that he opened his mouth in an attempt to defend himself, Stalin raised his hand to stop him and continued: "I didn't call you here to ask you a question. I wanted Zhukov and you to study and summarize the experience and lessons of the early stage of the campaign, so that the next stage of the battle could be carried out smoothly." As soon as Stalin's words were finished, the wooden door of the office was quietly pushed open from the outside, and then Zhukov, who had not seen him for a long time, came in with a big stride. He came to Stalin, slapped a stand at attention, and then said without expression, "Comrade Stalin, by your order, I have returned to Moscow."